EST531 Assignment: Inclusive Education Mainstream Practices Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of inclusive education methods, focusing on mainstream practices and alternative approaches. It begins by examining the current mainstream educational system, analyzing its strengths and weaknesses, and relating it to the chosen inclusive methods of education. The report delves into the Salamanca statement, which emphasizes the rights of all children to education and the importance of inclusive environments. It explores different models of special educational needs and disability, including the social and medical models, highlighting their implications. Furthermore, the report discusses the need for students to develop a broad set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values, including transformative competencies. The analysis extends to three media examples: the film 'Captain Fantastic', the book 'The Art of Self-Directed Learning', and the website Pace education, which demonstrate various approaches to inclusive education. The report concludes that inclusive education has diverse forms and can significantly benefit all students, including those with special needs, by promoting equality and social interaction.

Introduction: Our general education system mainly consists of inclusion and exclusion
techniques. Among them, the inclusive education system has been widely accepted as a form
of teaching for special educational needs students. In this article, we will provide a detailed
discussion about the mainstream practices of inclusion. We will analyse its pros and cons,
and through that, try to find a critical representation of the current mainstream education
system. We also try to relate it with the chosen inclusive method of education. This way, we
can achieve a better knowledge about various inclusive educational methods and understand
those methods properly.
Analysis of current mainstream educational practice: Inclusive educational method provides
a broader aspect and removes barriers and discrimination between students and improves
outcome. However, inclusion is a broad and complex concept, and in common practice, it is
very much diversified. In this article, in order to know inclusion better, we will try to find key
differences between rights and efficiency. We will examine all the points made for inclusive
education and then check the evidence in order to decide whether we should support it or not.
The Salamanca statement can be a well known statement for the basis of the rights for
inclusion ("The UNESCO Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special
Educational Needs Education", 1994). Salamanca statement ensures that every child should
get the chance to reach and maintain a certain level of education as education is the
fundamental right of every child. The second point of the statement deals with the uniqueness
of children. It states that every child is unique in their own way, characteristics, learning and
interests. The third point explains how the education system should run. It states that the
education system should be designed in such a way that it accepts the wide diversity of the
children and their needs. The fourth clause says that children with special needs also have
access to regular schools. Clause five of the Salamanca statement explains that normal
schools with an inclusive orientation are the best way of combating discriminatory attitude,

making an inclusive society and creating a welcoming community. They deliver operative
education to the students, which increases their efficiency and with that makes the whole
system cost effective. This way Salamanca statement has become an unambiguous statement
regarding children rights. There are two kinds of moral imperatives in this statement. The
first ensures that every child has unique characteristics, learning abilities and interests. And in
a collective manner, they are diverse. The second kind gives access to regular schools. It is
based on the fifth clause which says that inclusive education system is the most effective
form of education. Though the clause ends with mentioning to provide most effective
education to the ‘majority of children’. Besides, the term ‘regular school' is also
uncontentious. How can we consider the characteristics of regular school? Is it based on
factors like size, religion, amenities, attendance, student catchment, etc.? Does regular school
refers to non special schools? If so, then we need to consider those special schools which
partner mainstream schools. We also can consider mainstream schools with a specific special
provision. Another question may come here whether education is effective only for the
majority? Then what about the implications for the minority?
Models of special educational needs and disability: Some people argue that the concept of
social justice and the right to inclusion is not simple and straightforward. The concept of
social justice is not a universally shared concept. Adding to that, different people have
different views on social justice which can create ambiguity in the process of implementing
those policies (Christensen & Dorn, 1997). Though the communitarian principles may
endorse common principles, it spreads negative impression on disabled people. There is also
another argument which states that non-inclusion is equal to separation and discrimination
and it may result into racism and sexism. This idea parallels clashes to endorse inclusion
associated with challenging racist discrimination and separation policies. This idea generally
referred to as ‘social model' and different from the ‘medical model'. The medical model has

two different part. The first part is related with the medical profession which is not controlled
by educationists. The second model concentrates on ‘within child’ factors, giving stress on
impairment and underplaying, and overlooking the effects of environmental factors. If we see
the general trends, we can see that for the last thirty years, it has been moving from medical
to social model (Lindsay, 1997). In some scenarios, the social model is also uncooperative.
We must need to understand and respect the strengths and weaknesses of the children. We
also need to be aware of their nature of the environment, including school and home. The
main issue with social model is it generally disregards the within-child aspects and the issue
of interaction (Lindsay, 2003).
Need for a broad set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in action: Students are the key
elements to bring change in future. They have the power to implement positive change in
society. The concept of competency is more than acquiring knowledge and skills. It also
includes the mobilisation of skills, knowledge, values and attitudes in order to match with the
complexity of demands. For the future, students will require focussed and broad knowledge.
With that, they will also require to implement their knowledge of various unknown and new
situations. And for that reason, they will need a wide range of cognitive, social, emotional,
creative, analytic and practical skillset.
Competencies to transform our society and shape our future: In order to take part in all
dimensions of life, students need to experience uncertain situations. To be innovative, aware,
and responsible, students need to follow three main competencies. The three categories of
competencies, which altogether named as ‘Transformative Competencies’, are-
i) Creating new value- To become stronger, and to maintain sustainable development, new
values and sources of growth need to be added.

ii) Reconciling tensions and dilemmas- To live in a better future, every individual should
learn to think more precisely and constructively. They need to be a systematic thinker.
iii) Taking Responsibility- To deal with the changing society, they should take responsibility.
They should be equipped with the abilities like creativity, equality, and problem-solving
skills.
Usage of three pieces of media in Healthcare: If we go through each piece of media
mentioned on article 1, we can see that every media states a form of inclusion. In the movie,
Captain Fantastic, a husband and wife live isolated from the modern lifestyle and other
people. They raised their six children and educated them in a different manner. They taught
them all the necessary education, trained them to be fit physically, guided them how to co-
exist with nature and love nature. This form of education is far different from the
conventional one. Now if we look at the book named ‘The Art of Self-Directed Learning', we
could see that the book contained twenty-three stories through which the writer explains his
understanding of alternative education. After ten years of research, adventures and
interviewing different people, the writer (Blake Boles) wrote the book. The website, Pace
education, also demonstrates the idea of alternative education. It gives a chance to those
people who don't like the conventional educational system or who have a need for special
education. Pace education delivers tailored education for students of secondary age at their
schools or education centres. Maximum students of Pace education are in KS3 and KS4, but
their education does not follow the conventional methods. The main motto of Pace is to
reviving back their interest to learn new things. These examples clearly indicate that we
cannot bound education within a conventional system. In the area of healthcare also, the
importance of inclusive education is very much.

We can choose the movie Captain fantastic to teach students about inclusive education. There
are many scenes where it promotes alternative education. We can go through the whole
movie and learn a lot of things about the methods of alternative education. This proves that
there is no certain technique to learn a specific thing. A person can learn about a subject in
his favourable way. This movie demolishes the idea that only conventional education can
teach us the necessary things.
From the book ‘The Art of Self-Directed Learning’, we also can teach students about various
methods of alternative learning. The book contains twenty-three different stories through
which we got to know about the techniques and tricks of alternative learning. Students can
read the book to get a better idea about the learning processes. They can experiment with the
methods written in the book, and if they like the alternative techniques learning, they also can
try it by themselves.
The website of Pace education is also a great way to learn things in a new way. It can be very
much helpful for students with healthcare issues. There are a lot of students effected by
nervous problem or physical disabilities, and for that reason, they may not get interested to
learn things in a conventional way. In these cases, they can take help from the website to
educate them on a particular topic. The website also provides group discussions and one on
one classes which student may find highly interesting because of the unique techniques of
teaching.
Conclusion: Through this whole article, we discussed the main features of the inclusive
method of education. We critically examined the techniques of mainstream educational
practices of inclusion and applied that knowledge in our specific area of education. We have
also done a detailed analysis of the three pieces of media; one movie, one book, and one
website. And by analysing those media, we tried to find out the usefulness of alternative

education. This article shows that inclusive education has different forms, and it can be
highly beneficial for children and students to learn things easily. Inclusive method of
education provides special needs students with a feeling of being equal with others. This also
makes them socially interacted with non special students. So, with that context, we can say
that inclusive technique of teaching is a highly approachable method for all types of students,
and it helps to reduce the distance between special needs students and non special needs
students.

References:
Christensen, C., & Dorn, S. (1997). Competing notions of social justice and contradictions in
special education reform. Retrieved 27 August 2019, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37625917_Competing_notions_of_social_ju
stice_and_contradictions_in_special_education_reform
Lindsay, G. (1997). Are we ready for inclusion? Values into Practice in Special Education.
London: David Fulton.
Lindsay, G. (2003). Inclusive education: A critical perspective. Retrieved 27 August 2019,
from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229666616_Inclusive_education_A_critical
_perspective
The UNESCO Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Educational
Needs Education. (1994). Retrieved 27 August 2019, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44828042_The_UNESCO_Salamanca_State
ment_and_Framework_for_Action_on_Special_Educational_Needs_Education